French Bulldog 165 words.
That’s the average vocabulary a family dog can pick up, and the record setters have blown past a thousand. Yet French Bulldogs get quietly filed under adorable but untrainable, usually by people who tried to run a twenty minute obedience session with a dog built like a brick with opinions.
The brain was never the problem. The format was.
Frenchies fizzle out on long drills and overheat on repetitive ones, which means most of what works for a Border Collie flops badly here. Hand that same dog ninety seconds, a crumb of cheese, and a reason to care, and something switches on behind those enormous ears.
So the seven tricks below are chosen for how this breed actually operates: short bursts, high value food, zero patience for busywork. Nothing here requires jumping, sprinting, or any of the athletic nonsense a flat faced dog shouldn’t be doing anyway.
A French Bulldog doesn’t refuse to learn. He refuses to be bored.
1. Spin
The lure does the work
Hold a treat at nose level, move it in a slow circle beside your dog’s head, and let him follow it around. That’s the whole mechanic.
Mark the moment he completes the loop, then pay him.
Most Frenchies get the shape of this within three or four repetitions, which is exactly why it belongs first on the list. You need an early win, and honestly, so does he. Confidence built on one easy trick makes every harder trick faster.
Add the word "spin" only after the movement is smooth, never before.
Fade the hand fast
Here’s where people stall out: they lure forever and end up with a dog who only spins when a hand is waving a snack around.
Shrink the circle a little every few reps. Bigger to smaller, snack to empty hand, empty hand to one lazy finger twirl.
2. Touch
A nose bump that fixes a dozen problems
Present a flat palm about an inch from his face. Curiosity does the rest, because a Frenchie investigates everything that appears suddenly.
The instant his nose makes contact, mark it and pay.
Why this one is secretly the most useful
Touch is the trick that becomes a tool. You can use it to move your dog off the couch without dragging him, to guide him past a barking terrier on the sidewalk, or to reposition him at the vet without a wrestling match.
It also gives an anxious dog a job, and a job is the fastest cure for spiraling.
I’d argue this beats "sit" for everyday practical value. Sit parks a dog. Touch steers one.
3. Shake and Other Paw
Catch what he already does
French Bulldogs paw at things constantly. Food bowls, your shin, the door, your face at 5am.
Close a treat in your fist and hold it low. Wait. He’ll sniff, he’ll huff, he’ll probably snort directly into your knuckles, and then he’ll swat at your hand because pawing is his default problem solving strategy.
That swat is the trick. Mark it, open the hand, pay immediately.
Adding the second paw
Once "shake" is solid, switch hands and change the word to "other paw." Present only the new hand and wait him out.
He will offer the trained paw first, confidently and repeatedly, like a man pressing a broken elevator button. Ignore it. Say nothing.
The second he experiments with the correct paw, throw a small party.
Waiting in silence teaches more than repeating a cue ten times. The pause is where the thinking happens.
4. Roll Over
Build it in halves
Start with your dog in a down. Lure a treat from his nose toward his shoulder blade so his head turns and his hip drops.
Stop there. Pay him for the flop onto one hip.
Only once that half roll is reliable should you continue the lure over his spine to complete the full rotation. Rushing this is how you end up with a dog who braces and pops back into a sit every single time.
Read the body, not the clock
Some Frenchies roll over on day one. Others find the whole thing deeply undignified.
Because this breed is prone to spinal issues, skip the trick entirely if your dog has any diagnosed back trouble, yelps, or twists stiffly instead of loosely. Ask your vet first if you’re unsure. No trick is worth a disc.
Plenty of alternatives exist, and your dog does not know he is missing out.
5. Take a Bow
Steal it from the morning stretch
Watch your dog when he wakes up. Chest low, rear end high, front legs stretched forward: that’s a bow, delivered free of charge.
Start saying "bow" the moment he does it naturally, then toss a treat. After a week of catching the behavior, the word starts predicting the stretch.
Shaping it on cue
To teach it deliberately, stand your dog up, hold a treat between his front paws, and draw it straight down toward the floor.
The trick is releasing the treat before his back end sinks. Elbows down, hips up, mark, pay.
Bow photographs beautifully, which matters more than it should when you own a breed this photogenic. It also looks like a magic trick to house guests.
6. Speak and Hush
Teach the noise on purpose
Counterintuitive, yes. You have to invite the barking to get control of it.
Find whatever reliably produces one bark (a doorbell sound, a squeaky toy held just out of reach, a bit of excited hyping) and then name it the moment it happens.
Frenchies aren’t naturally barky dogs, so you may be working with grumbles, yodels, and that weird gargling sound they make. All of it counts.
The quiet is the real prize
Once "speak" is on cue, wait for the silence that follows and label that too. "Hush," then pay, then breathe.
Now you own both ends of the switch. A dog who can be asked to stop is infinitely easier to live with than a dog who was never allowed to start.
Control of a behavior beats suppression of it every time.
7. Tidy Up
Chain it piece by piece
The full picture: dog picks up toy, carries it to a bin, drops it in, comes back for another.
That’s four skills stacked together, so teach them backward. Start with the drop. Hold a toy directly over the bin, ask for a release, and let physics handle the rest.
Then add one step of distance at a time.
Set it up so he can win
Use a shallow, open container. A Frenchie’s build makes reaching into anything tall genuinely awkward, and a trick that’s physically uncomfortable will be abandoned quietly and permanently.
Keep sessions to about two minutes. Three toys is a full session, not a warmup.
Once he’s got it, the trick pays you back every evening when the living room floor stops looking like a chew toy crime scene. Your dog thinks it’s a game. You know it’s chores. Both things can be true.